We Beat the Scientologists!
The good news is that atheists are no longer in last place! The bad news is that we have a long way to go to catch up with the Methodists.
[Hat Tip: Framing Science]
Strolling with a skeptical biochemist
The good news is that atheists are no longer in last place! The bad news is that we have a long way to go to catch up with the Methodists.
[Hat Tip: Framing Science]
The old argument of design in nature, as given by Paley, which formerly
seemed to me to be so conclusive, fails, now that the law of natural selection has been discovered. We
can no longer argue that, for instance, the beautiful hinge of a bivalve shell must have been made by
an intellignet being, like the hinge of a door by man. There seems to be no more design in the
variability of organic beings and in the action of natural selection, than in the course which the wind
blows.
Although I am fully convinced of the truth of the views given in this volume, I by no means expect to convince experienced naturalists whose minds are stocked with a multitude of facts all viewed, during a long course of years, from a point of view directly opposite to mine. It is so easy to hide our ignorance under such expressions as "plan of creation," "unity of design," etc., and to think that we give an explanation when we only restate a fact. Any one whose disposition leads him to attach more weight to unexplained difficulties than to the explanation of a certain number of facts will certainly reject the theory.
CharlesScience reveals where religion conceals. Where religion
purports to explain, it actually resorts to tautology. To assert that "God did it" is no
more than an admission of ignorance dressed deceitfully as an explanation..
The world is not inhabited exclusively by fools, and when a subject arouses intense interest, as this one has, something other than semantics is usually at stake.
Stephen Jay Gould (1982)I have championed contingency, and will continue to do so, because its large realm and legitimate claims have been so poorly attended by evolutionary scientists who cannot discern the beat of this different drummer while their brains and ears remain tuned to only the sounds of general theory.
Stephen Jay Gould (2002) p.1339The essence of Darwinism lies in its claim that natural selection creates the fit. Variation is ubiquitous and random in direction. It supplies raw material only. Natural selection directs the course of evolutionary change.
Stephen Jay Gould (1977)Rudyard Kipling asked how the leopard got its spots, the rhino its wrinkled skin. He called his answers "just-so stories." When evolutionists try to explain form and behavior, they also tell just-so stories—and the agent is natural selection. Virtuosity in invention replaces testability as the criterion for acceptance.
Stephen Jay Gould (1980)Since 'change of gene frequencies in populations' is the 'official' definition of evolution, randomness has transgressed Darwin's border and asserted itself as an agent of evolutionary change.
Stephen Jay Gould (1983) p.335The first commandment for all versions of NOMA might be summarized by stating: "Thou shalt not mix the magisteria by claiming that God directly ordains important events in the history of nature by special interference knowable only through revelation and not accessible to science." In common parlance, we refer to such special interference as "miracle"—operationally defined as a unique and temporary suspension of natural law to reorder the facts of nature by divine fiat.
Stephen Jay Gould (1999) p.84
9 comments:
we have a long way to go to catch up with the Methodists.
All you need to do is tell more people that Bush is a Methodist...that'll cost us half our lead.
I'm still shocked that atheists are the seen that negatively. I just can't wrap my mind around that one.
Simple. Atheists are demonized (yes, I mean literally) by theists. Who else but the devil could be so wicked as to deny god? The fact that we don't believe in devils either doesn't seem to matter...
That 45% of Americans who have negative opinions about atheists is just about identical to the percentage who are young-Earth creationists.
In other words, non-wackos are at worst neutral.
Congratulations on beating the Scientologists.
It's nice to see that the Jews get a high rating, as opposed to only couple of generations ago. (And don't forget: there's probably more than a few atheists hiding in that group ;-).
I wonder what the equivalent Canadian figures would look like? I expect that the Baptist/Evangelical/fundy ranking would be lower, partly because there are fewer of them here (I assume a fair chunk of the "positive" in each group comes from its own members), and partly because, well, the Canadian temperament seems to lean away from that kind of religion towards liberal religion and non-belief.
Do people really get paid to go around asking folks if they hate the Muslims or love the Jews this year? It sounds like a Monty Python sketch.
Eat your heart out, Tom Cruise.
Never mind the Methodists, we're still 'way behind the Muslims fer cryen out loud.
I linked this story at
http://theframeproblem.wordpress.com/2008/04/16/atheism-no-longer-the-most-despised-group-in-america-thanks-scientology/
In addition to being an atheist and secularist blogger, I have also been on a blogging crusade against the Cult of Scientology. Given these mutually relevant areas of focus and my promotion of the article on Digg, Reddit, Facebook, StumbleUpon, and the Enturbulation.Org Scientology activist webpage, the post got a LOT of traffic (thus far it's been viewed well over 2,000 times) and received 247 Diggs.
Post a Comment